WUSA9 met exclusively with Washington Commanders majority owner Josh Harris moments after he helped welcome head coach Dan Quinn to the organization. Quinn's hiring brought to a close a whirlwind month for Harris.
After parting ways with Ron Rivera in January, Harris put together his search committee, and began looking for a new leader of the franchise. Harris brought in Adam Peters as the team's new general manager, and Quinn was hired a few weeks later, following a series of interviews.
Then, Kliff Kingsbury joined Quinn's staff as offensive coordinator, with Joe Whitt Jr. as defensive coordinator.
"It's a new dawn," Harris said.
Getting to this point was clearly something Harris took seriously, and personally. As someone who grew up watching the Washington franchise in its heyday, he knows the responsibility he has bringing the team into its next chapter.
Harris and his ownership group took the franchise over from embattled owner Dan Snyder in July, paying a record $6.05 billion. Since then, Harris has not stopped pushing to restore the franchise to its former glory, the team he remembers growing up with.
"It's really deep and emotional," Harris said. "You get flooded with memories of your childhood. You get flooded with memories of all the success that Washington football has had... The sound of the football field at RFK."
But the owner says he is up to the task.
"I feel like I was put on Earth to do this," he said. "But I also feel a tremendous obligation to the city."
Harris also talked about the process of selecting a new head coach, and what really happened behind the scenes. The Commanders spoke to a number of head coaching candidates throughout January, including Mike Macdonald, Raheem Morris, Bobby Slowik and Ben Johnson.
"There's a lot of times that coaches or assistant coaches are speaking publicly. You can learn a lot about who they are," Harris said. "You study their track record, what they've said, what they stand for, how they orient in football."
Once Harris identified who the team wanted to speak to, he said the interviews covered a lot of ground, from the broad to the detailed, from who they are as people, to how they feel about the draft.
"We go really deep," he said.
The entire process took some time, but Harris said Quinn stood out early.
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11 фев 2024
